“The claimant/his mother have been advised to record his consultations with the defendant’s medical experts as an aide memoire and to protect him against errors. As you know, he is unlikely to recall what was said and his mother has a hearing issue. Claimants with brain injuries are vulnerable and often during assessments suffer mental fatigue and become confused which increases the risk of misunderstanding. Some, such as this claimant, are suggestable and sometimes the questions asked are clumsy and the answer misinterpreted. A recording provides the best evidence of what was said or not said. It is a quick and easy way of correcting any errors made either by the claimant or the medical expert. It is certainly better than any contemporaneous note by the expert - experts whose sole duty is to the court should be glad of the recording so they can cross-reference with their notes and make any adjustments to their reports before the joint statement phase. Please take it that all of the assessments may be recorded and advise your experts accordingly as you did in the Mustard case to avoid any confusion or awkward conversations. There is no expectation of privacy during a medico-legal consultation and there is no duty on the claimant to advise any expert of the making of a recording.”
“A potentially important aspect of assessing whether or not a patient suffered a brain injury is deciding whether there is a history of post traumatic amnesia (PTA). Accurate recording of the patient's account is critical. In his first report Dr Gross records that the claimant had no memory of a taxi having to pick her up from hospital but she did recall a later occasion when she was in Tesco's car park and picked up some bottles of wine for a friend and when she put the bottles into a trolley she toppled into the trolley herself. A comparison of what Dr Gross included in his report with a transcript of the tape recording made by the claimant at the time of the consultation shows that both matters are wrongly recorded by Dr Gross. The complainant told Dr Gross that she did indeed recall the taxi but not the journey home in it and that she had no recollection of the Tesco's incident but that she had been told about it. 111. Early in his report Dr Gross said, when commenting on the claimant's recording the consultation, that "the transcription will hopefully demonstrate the significant inconsistencies there are with regard to Miss Williams and the way she presents her history". On this occasion, the transcript indicates the inaccuracy of Dr Gross's report on a central feature of the case. How could the claimant have protected herself against the obvious adverse inference which would have been drawn against her had the transcript of her recording not been available?” 112. In the same report, Dr Gross says that when asked about relationships the claimant initially refused to answer questions. Reference to the transcript shows that she answered such intimate questions fully. Dr Gross's response was that he had got the impression that she was evading the question. I reject that explanation. 113 In the same report, Dr Gross quotes from a letter dated27th January 2003 from Mr Peter Hamlyn, a Consultant Neurological and Spinal Surgeon, to the claimant's General Medical Practitioner in which Mr Hamlyn said that the claimant had a functional stammer and that she was having nightmares about returning to work only to make a mistake and lose her licence. This was an obvious reference to the claimant's fear of losing her licence to practice as a nurse but Dr Gross misinterpreted this as a reference to her fearing she would lose her driving licence. Under cross-examination he refused to accept that he had made this mistake.”
“Professor Kemp has prepared a statement setting out the reasons why he does not want to be recorded. He is not alone in this view. Whilst there are some neuropsychologists who are prepared to be recorded, there are a great many more who are not. It also appears that the BPS [British Psychological Society] will shortly be releasing guidance on recordings. This is detailed in the statements of Professor Kemp and Professor Baker.”
“The most important reason behind this is that a patient will perform differently when recorded and as the testing is standardised, the test results may be rendered invalid. A further difficulty is that the claimant who has the ability to re-listen to the testing becomes untestable in the future.”
“(6) I am not prepared to allow either to be recorded, that is either the testing or the examination. My normal practice is to ask patients if they are recording or are intending to record the consultation. If they indicate that they are recording then I ask them to cease. I have only recently had to abort an examination part-way through where I discovered that I was being covertly recorded. The claimant told me he had been told to record the examination by his barrister. (7) A working party of the Division of Neuropsychology of the British Psychological Society has been set up in task to draft new guidelines on recording of both examinations and testing during neuropsychological examinations. (8) I am a member of this working party which is chaired by Professor Gus Baker, and in February 2020 I was co-author of draft guidelines alongside Professor Baker.”
“(14) Recordings change the dynamic of the examination and from my experience where I have been recorded and then discovered the same, it has been the impression of the patient in advance that I will be a hostile medical professional and this immediately affects the doctor/patient relationship. (15) Recording changes the behaviour of the patient as it adds an observational element to the assessment. (16) This means that the testing is outside the test standardisation conditions and that the test results cannot be interpreted in the normal way. Where one expert’s examination has been recorded but another has not, this also complicates the process of joint statements. (17) If a patient records the testing, there is also a risk that they may listen to it, perhaps more than once which is likely to render them untestable in future whether by another medico-legal expert or for clinical purposes. The same can also apply to Judges, lawyers, or transcribers, who listen to the recording and were able to ascertain how the tests were administered. (18) The test papers are kept confidential and secure to ensure that these do not enter the public domain which risks eroding their reliability and validity of the test procedures and ensures there is no breach of the publisher’s copyright. (19) Recording of the testing also potentially puts the doctor in breach of the copyright licence which they acquire when purchasing the test papers from the publisher and they become liable for breach of copyright. Furthermore, a publisher may refuse future sales of their test papers to a doctor if they are concerned that the testing is going to be recorded. (20) It is essential that patients can be measured within standardised conditions. If conditions are not standardised this can cause problems with interpretation. It is not possible to say whether or not the normative data would apply. (21) Where patients are examined by more than one neuropsychologist, it is essential that the conditions are the same so that the results can be accurately compared. If one of those assessments is recorded and another is not, this places the recorded examination and testing outside the standardised conditions.”
“(18) The reasons for this are three-fold: (i), the tests have not been standardised for being overtly or covertly recorded, (ii), the presence of recording is likely to influence the relationship between and behaviour of the administrator and testee, (iii), the tests are copyrighted and disclosure of the tests is forbidden by the test manufacturers.”
“However, I am aware that psychologists would not generally endorse covert recording of neuropsychological testing, this tending to be the professional opinion in clinical neuropsychology internationally. Generally, third party recording of neuropsychological testing is not recommended and it has been ruled against in certain instances, for example, by professional bodies relating to neuropsychology in the USA.”
“One can have much sympathy with McCowan LJ's approach, especially in relation to the unusual facts of this case. But it is not for the sake of the appellant alone that the privilege must be upheld. It is in the wider interests of all those hereafter who might otherwise be deterred from telling the whole truth to their solicitors. For this reason I am of the opinion that no exception should be allowed to the absolute nature of legal professional privilege, once established.”